(VentureBeat) The retail industry is at a crossroads. This time, however, it’s not surrounding daring fashions or limited choices; it’s the advent of virtual reality commerce taking hold, and brands looking to grow sales and increase brand loyalty in the future should take note. VR commerce utilizes virtual reality, head-mounted displays (HMD), and smartphones/computers to both enhance and drive the shopping experience.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba at its helm, this virtual reality shopping experience has already revealed the potential of VR commerce. An hour after it launched in honor of Singles’ Day, 30,000 people had already engaged with the platform. Just one week later, and that figure increased to a whopping eight million users.